著者

ギュヴェン デヴリム C

出版者

東京大学大学院総合文化研究科言語情報科学専攻

雑誌

言語情報科学 (ISSN:13478931)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.6, pp.101-116, 2008-03-01

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1994 Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe's short novel Kakoseikatsusha (1960) (Falling Man) portrays at first a deliberate, then an unavoidable, "fall" of a prestigious assistant professor at a government university in Tokyo. Betraying his rural origins including his family members, as a result of a rapid and successful ascent, he experiences an identity crisis which forces him to suspend this ascent. Such a "fall" accompanied by a homo-social solidarity and collision which constitutes the main theme of this novel reflects remarkably contemporary socio-political developments of the era which the novelist was a part of. As is the case of Oe's other works, the theme of sexuality is used as a metaphor for socio-political and international power relations ; with a difference though in this short novel, being the adoption of the theme of homo-social, solidarity and rivalry between men throughout the struggle for power in a hierarchical social and/or international system.